Description
The present study aimed to present normative and reliability data of two change of direction tasks collected on the field in young footballers and to provide a practical tool for the assessment of ACL injury risk during the RTS.
ACLR players exhibited biomechanical risk factors in line with the ACL injury mechanisms as reported in the literature. Greater frontal and transverse plane differences emerged in football-specific tasks. Healthy female players also showed more risk factors for ACL injury than male players.
Test-retest reliability was acceptable for most joints, but caution should be used when interpreting small kinematical differences. The tool here proposed can support clinicians in boosting the rehabilitation and RTS programs after ACL injury through objective on-field measurements.
